2022 AXR Winery Proprietary Red Napa Valley 750 ml

We call it an “under-the-counter” pour: a wine that packs so much punch for the price that it can threaten the sales of more expensive bottles. So when a winery pays its bills with $195 Cabernets, they might not want to pour them alongside $50 overachievers. Those stay under the table.

The 2022 AXR Proprietary Red might be the MOTHER of all under-the-counter pours. This blend of 98% Cabernet Sauvignon and 2% Cab Franc is the handiwork of 100-point ace Jean Hoefliger of Alpha Omega fame. It boasts a 94-point score from Decanter’s Cabernet savant Jonathan Cristaldi, who called it “super dark-fruited, with “impressive heft and muscle.”

Wine Access members have flipped for AXR’s Proprietary Red, calling it “truly a great bottle” and “an excellent value.” A common refrain? “Wish I’d ordered a lot more.”

Few winemakers in Napa Valley have produced more opulent, hedonistic, 95–100 point wines than Hoefliger, and he’s the guy who world-renowned enologist Michel Rolland trusts to make his namesake wine—that speaks volumes. From a winery whose single-vineyard Cabs sell for around $200, this is a steal at our price. 

Massive credit, of course, belongs to Hoefliger, the globe-hopping talent with a delightfully dirty sense of humor that somehow accompanies his Swiss winemaking precision. After getting a viticultural degree in Switzerland, Hoefliger did formative stints in Bordeaux at Château Carbonnieux and Château Lynch-Bages. 

He then turned his focus to the New World, where he has made two perfect-score wines under The Debate label, another at Alpha Omega, and a slew of impressive ones for Newton as well. Hoefliger could not make a boring wine if he tried. His bottlings are always packed with incredibly pure, rich fruit, which is why this bottle earned a unanimous and resounding “YES!” from our wine team. Made from prime sources in Yountville, Coombsville, and Oak Knoll, it’s 98% Cabernet Sauvignon—so legally it could be labeled as such—and it boasts the boldness that you’d expect from a pure Napa Cab, with a little bit of herbal lift from Cabernet Franc.